Richard Felton Outcault (1863-1928) created Hogan’s Alley,
which is considered the first commercially successful newspaper comic
strip. It featured Mickey Dugan, better known as the Yellow Kid, and
Outcault drew this character for the New York World from
May 5, 1895 to October 4, 1896. He and his character moved to William
Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal where the Yellow
Kid appeared in three series, McFadden’s Row of Flats
(October 18, 1896-January 10, 1897), Around the World with the
Yellow Kid (January 17, 1897-May 30, 1897), and Ryan’s
Arcade (September 28, 1897-January 23, 1898). The reason for
the four-month hiatus of the feature from the Journal during the summer
of 1897 is unknown.
There were two competing versions of
the Yellow Kid in New York papers for more than a year as George Luks
drew Hogan’s Alley for Pulitzer’s World
from October 11, 1896 until December 5, 1897, and Outcault created
the Kid for Hearst’s Journal at the same time.
The eighty-eight Yellow Kid tear sheets
in this digital album are from the San Francisco Academy of Comic
Art Collection, Bill Blackbeard, Director.

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